


all the fear and the fire of the end of the world (happens each time a boy falls in love with a girl)

by ace_ofspades



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Am I going to expand on this? Probably not, But its been in my drafts for over three months and I'm TIRED, Drunken Confessions, F/M, Ideolas Aldercapt should not be left in charge of children, Implied Sexual Content, Mutual Pining, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-08 06:45:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19101841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ace_ofspades/pseuds/ace_ofspades
Summary: It's the last night in Lestallum before the Chocobros and their Imperial companion head towards Altissia and the unknown. With the help of some liquid courage and a whole lot of interfering friends, a stoic adviser and a runaway princess with hair as firey as her temper finally manage to break down the walls between them.





	all the fear and the fire of the end of the world (happens each time a boy falls in love with a girl)

This was not his scene. In the list of places that Ignis would like to have been at this very moment, a nightclub in Lestallum placed only slightly higher than the smoldering wreckage of Insomnia. Still, he could by no means fault his companions for seeking the diversion; only a few days away from boarding the ship to Altissia, tension within the royal retinue was thick enough to cut with a knife. Time to decompress and relax seemed like just what they needed. Unfortunately, their ideas on how to do so were diametrically opposed to each other. But whether through peer pressure or concern for the wellbeing of Noctis and the others, he allowed himself to be spirited away to the neon-lit bastion of hedonism his friends had set their sights on. 

 

“Man, were entry lines always this long back home? I don’t even remember spending this much time waiting to get in!” Noctis groaned beside him, kicking at the paving stones as they stood in the line of people waiting to enter the otherwise unassuming red-brick building that housed the club. 

 

His complaint was met with a snort from Gladio, who clapped the undercover prince on the shoulder. “‘Course you don’t! Who in their right mind was gonna stop the fucking Prince of Lucis from getting into a club? You’re incognito now, which means you gotta wait in line like the rest of us.”

 

Cringing slightly at the larger man’s volume, Ignis found himself cutting in, “While I agree with the sentiment, Gladio, could you perhaps lower your voice? There’s not much point in trying to lay low if you’re shouting Noct’s name so loudly the Six could hear it.” He paused to look around, scanning the nearby streets for a familiar flash of scarlet hair.  “Not to mention, we’re still one short - it’s probably for the best that we’re out here, lest Aurelia be left to fend for herself once we go in.”

 

“Yeah, now that you mention it - where is Rori? I thought Iris said they’d be done shopping by seven.” Asked Prompto, looking up from his phone with a concerned look.

 

Gladio laughed, “You’ve obviously never been shopping with my sister; if she says she’ll be done by seven, she means twenty past at the earliest. My guess is they got delayed trying to decide whether garula or mesminir leather looks better with the tops they picked out.” Despite the playful exasperation in his tone, the Shield’s affection for his sister was clear. Taking full advantage of his height, he peered out across the crowd for a moment before breaking into a grin. “Speak of the daemon! They’re coming over now!”    
  
It was easy to flag down the two late arrivals, Iris quickly bounding over to embrace her older brother. “Sorry we’re late, Gladdy! There was just sooo much to choose from, and then Rori had to get ready and we lost track of time!” 

 

At the mention of her moniker, the woman in question stepped forward cautiously, and Ignis’s breath caught in his lungs. He was used to thinking of Aurelia in one of two outfits; the bone-white Imperial finery she had been wearing the first time they had met, long since foggy with time and new memories, or the practical work clothes given to her by Cindy when their tentative alliance had begun. True, they were tighter than what was strictly necessary, and left little to the imagination, but at least by now they were familiar to him. This was something new entirely. 

 

The first thing his gaze fell to was her top; a slightly deeper shade of blood than her hair, the crushed velvet bustier sat strapless beneath a black leather jacket studded with skulls, leaving the smooth expanse of her stomach tantalisingly, mouth-wateringly bare. The effort to avert his gaze was quickly thwarted by the sight of long legs clad in figure hugging shorts and a pair of dark heels unlike anything he’d seen her in before.  It took a lot to catch Ignis Scientia off-guard, but it this outfit had done the job splendidly. 

 

Gladio’s booming voice brought the shell-shocked advisor back to the present in time to see him pull Aurelia into a bonecrushing hug.

 

“Whoah, lookin’ good Rori! Didn’t think I’d ever get to see you in shoes that couldn’t kick someone’s head in! You sure you aren’t going to topple over?”  They were quickly surrounded by the other two in their party, no doubt equally shocked to see the outfit that Iris had chosen for their friend. 

 

A shake of the disowned princess’s head sent her shoulder length chopped hair flying as she responded with a small smile, “I know how to wear high heels, Gladiolus - I’ve attended balls in them before.”

 

Watching the easy affection between Aurelia and Gladio in silence, a familiarly unpleasant coiling sensation churned in his stomach, sparks of anger tingling off his fingers. He knew the feeling; it had been a near constant companion the last few weeks, lingering in the back of his mind whenever the two were together. Petty jealousy was unlike him, but even when he knew that Gladio’s feelings towards the Niflheim heir were more brotherly than romantic, he couldn’t help wishing that her sun-bright smiles were directed at him. 

  
Still, he choked down his discontent in favour of touching her on the shoulder lightly, saying, “You look lovely, Aurelia.” 

  
The young woman looked up at him with a smile that sent warmth to his very core. “Thank you, Ignis, I’m very glad you like it.” 

  
Was it wishful thinking on his part, or did her carefully made-up face just get a little redder?   
  
“Damn right she does!” Iris teased, “she’s gonna be having all the fun I can’t! Still wish I could go in with you, though.” She remarked, looking wistfully at the shortening distance between their group and the door to the club. 

 

“You still got three years left, pipsqueak.” Her brother growled playfully, ruffling her dark hair with his larger hand. “Then you can get into all the trouble you like at this place.” 

 

Interrupting Iris’s indignant squeals at her treatment, Noctis called out to the others, alerting them to the fact that they were now at the front of the line, and dangerously close to holding up the rest of the queue. 

 

Crossing the building’s threshold was like entering through a portal to another world. The warm tones of Lestallum’s paved streets at dusk gave way to a neon wonderland of sights and sounds, the heavy thump of a bassline as steady as a heartbeat surrounding them. Noctis, purple light reflecting off his black hair, was quick to scope out the nearest free seats, the others instinctively following their sworn leader. 

  
“I’ll go get us drinks,” Gladio offered, turning to the others. “What d’you guys want?”

 

Prompto and Noctis, predictably, simply got the house beer. Ignis, being a little more discerning, elected to try the Lestallum interpretation of a vodka martini, and Gladio ordered a rum and coke. The female of the group took a little longer to decide, scanning the drink menu and mouthing the names to herself until her eyes seemed to land on one in particular, lighting up in excitement   
  
“They have  _ ramnersjugånger  _ here!” She exclaimed happily.    
  
All around their small table, eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Whoah, isn’t that that green Nif spirit? I heard too much of that can kill you. You sure about this, kid?” The shield asked, genuine concern writ on his brow.    
  
The redheaded princess levelled him with a stony look, raising her chin in defiance. “It will only kill you if you are weak to begin with - maybe this is why you Lucians are so afraid of it?”

 

Silence fell upon the table, the four Lucian natives exchanging  awkward glances, until her face split into a wide, mischievous grin. “I’m joking! You are welcome to try some as well.”

 

Ignis could have sworn he heard a collective sigh of relief. 

 

The passing of time was difficult to judge, lack of natural light and the heady mix of alcohol and adrenaline in the air leaving the inhabitants of this nocturnal hideaway living purely in the moment. One song blurred into another, and then another, and then another. At first, he had been joined in his observations of the crowd by the scarlet-haired woman, a boisterous grin plastered on her face as she chattered with an animation he rarely saw, pausing at intervals to take a shot from the line of glasses in front of her. Far be it from Ignis to make judgements on a people he had no experience with outside of battle, but if their Crown Princess was anything to go by, he was beginning to understand how the strange green drink had become so popular. She held her liquor surprisingly well; better even, than he suspected he himself would have in the same position.

 

But good things rarely lasted. It wasn’t long before the outfit that had been so enticing to Ignis began to attract the attention of others, and his conversational partner was pulled up to dance time and time again, that same grin on her face directed at people who didn’t deserve it. A scan of the room quickly located the two younger men of their party on the dance floor surrounded by strangers and seemingly having the time of their lives, Gladiolus being stood at the bar entertaining whoever was nearest with his blustering confidence and easy charisma.    
  
It seemed the looming shadow of the Hydrean had imbued the group with a sort of hedonistic fervour; they had one night to enjoy the carefree pleasures of youth before the future came knocking, and nobody intended to end it with any regrets.

 

Well, almost nobody. 

 

Distantly, Ignis became aware of a bulky presence sitting down beside him. Too occupied with glaring daggers into the back of Aurelia’s current partner - a lanky blonde with more cologne than common sense, he barely managed a nod at his larger friend, who suddenly let out a long, over-dramatic sigh.

  
“Okay, now this is just getting sad.”

 

Emerald eyes stared pointedly at the speaker, looking him up and down. “I’m not sure what you mean, Gladiolus.” He replied cautiously. 

 

The shield rolled his eyes in exasperation,“Oh give it a rest, Specs.”  He said, clapping his friend on the shoulder. “Just get up and ask her to dance, it’s not that hard!”

 

“If you’re referring to Aurelia, she appears to have her pick of partners.” Came the curt response as he looked over to the woman in question, yet again dancing with someone new. This one’s hair was a similar ashy blond to his own, but his hold on his partners hips was just a little too tight and his grin just a little too suggestive for Ignis’s liking. His grip tightened almost imperceptibly around the stem of his cocktail glass, fighting the urge to get up and give the boy a piece of his mind. “If she had wanted me to join her, I’m sure she would have asked by now.”

 

Gladio groaned. “Fucking Six, Iggy - how are you so fast to pick things up in a fight but completely blind about this?” 

 

Just then, Prompto and Noctis reappeared, both holding a bottle of beer and looking slightly unsteady on their feet. “Oooh, are we talking about Iggy having the hots for Rori?” The cheerful blond chirped, the alcohol having reduced his filter even further. 

  
“Be quiet, Prompto.” The man in question snapped, uncharacteristically defensive towards the blonde, who simply giggled.  

 

Gladio sideyed him warningly, before asking incredulously, “You’re telling me you seriously haven’t noticed all the times she’s looked back at you from the dancefloor? Do you need new glasses, or something?”   
  
“Are you implying that she’s been trying to make me jealous?” He asked, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. “I highly doubt that to be the case, Gladio.”

 

Shaking his head and stifling a yawn, his friend replied sagely, “Nah, Rori isn’t like that. All I’m sayin’ is: she’d probably like dancing with you more than any of those other guys.”   
  
In front of them, the blond sharp shooter began to sing cheerily.   
  
“Iggy and Rori, sittin’ in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N--  _ Mph _ !” The chant was muffled by the hand of the Prince, who had placed his hand over his friend’s mouth to silence him. Heedless of the teasing, Ignis’s gaze returned to the swaying hips and bobbing hair of the topic of conversation, gears whirring in his mind.   
  
It couldn’t hurt just to ask, could it? Regardless of any private feelings he had for her, they were still friends - what was a dance between friends? He took another sip of his drink, relying on it for the fortitude he would need if he were to try this.    
  
“I suppose it couldn’t hurt to ask,” He admitted softly, staring into the empty glass. His own emotions weren’t exactly his forte - he had never even been in a proper relationship before, his devotion to Noctis and the Crown having always come first. Now, he was stuck in the middle of a war that had taken everything they had ever known, trying to work up the courage to make an advance on the girl who should have been their enemy.

 

What on Eos had his life become?

 

A deep guffaw from Gladio broke him from contemplation just in time to brace himself for a clap on the back that would otherwise have sent him sprawling. “That’s the spirit, Iggy! Nothing ventured, nothing gained!” He was grinning widely now, the scar across his face crinkling up. “But I’d move fast if I were you,” He advised, pointing away from their table, “her Imperial Highness looks to be making a backdoor getaway.”   
  
Sure enough, when he looked in the direction his friend had gestured, all he saw was a flash of red hair disappearing behind the closing door to the alleyway behind the club. He sighed and got up, downing the remains of his drink in one go.    
  
Now or never, he supposed. 

 

He was half expecting her to be absent when he followed the path she had made through the crowd and out into the night air, perhaps having decided to return to the Leville for some much-needed rest. But no, there she was, leaning against the wall and staring up at the sky above, a contemplative expression on her face.    
  
Clearing his throat, he called her name softly. 

 

“Aurelia.”   
  
She looked back with a start, eyes wide for a fraction of a second, before relaxing into a soft, almost relieved smile. “Ignis,” she greeted in return. “I thought for a moment you might have been that boy on the dancefloor I had come out here to avoid,” 

 

It sent a small, shameful bolt of satisfaction through the advisor that the advances of her previous partner had been so thoroughly rejected, but at the same time he couldn’t help the concern that he felt.    
  
“If you were looking to get away from someone, a dark backstreet behind a club is hardly the safest place to retreat,” He admonished gently, and she fixed him with a look not unlike the one she had given Gladio when he questioned her choice of drink.   
  
“You do not think I could take care of myself? I can deal with someone like him in my sleep,” Her face softened slightly, looking back to the sky. “Still, thank you for your concern, Ignis. I suppose I was acting rather recklessly - I have been most of tonight, I think.”

 

The rueful smile on her face had Ignis longing to reach across and touch her cheek in comfort, but instead he settled for moving to stand beside her, watching her expression carefully. “I think most of us have been doing the same,” He said, “Altissia seems to be bringing out everyone’s bacchanalian tendencies.” Carefully, he looked over to her, cautious of how to word this next enquiry. “Are… are you frightened?”   
  
A soft sigh left her, looking to the pavement below. “Of going to Altissia? No, not really. I have faith in Noctis - and Lady Lunafreya, for that matter. If anyone can make this right, it’s them. Though, I’ll admit… I am apprehensive towards the prospect of meeting the Lady Oracle face-to-face; she has much to hate me for, and I fear that my presence will only complicate matters further.”

 

If a third of the stories that Noctis and the rest of Eos told of the young Oracle were true, then Ignis had no doubt that there would be no need to worry, and he told her so. 

 

“Lady Lunafreya is by all accounts a kind and forgiving young woman; I am sure that she will understand that you are not your father’s daughter, and have no desire to continue his legacy.”    
  
At this, he reached out and touched her shoulder gently, looking into her eyes, “Regardless of your past allegiances, you are Noct’s friend. Just as you are mine, and Gladio’s, and Prompto’s. And perhaps in time, you will become her friend as well.”

 

A funny look appeared on her face as she listened to him, turning away before he could properly analyse it. “Yes… friends. We are friends, aren’t we, Ignis?”   
  
“Of course we are.”

 

He could have sworn it was relief that passed over her features, her neck craning up towards the sky with a smile that had his heart pounding in the cage of his chest.    
  
“I never did thank you, you know.” she murmured, not looking away from the inky black ether above them. 

 

Beneath his spectacles, Ignis raised an eyebrow. “Thank me? What for?”

 

Her smile widened beneath the distant shine of a streetlamp, eyes flickering shut. “For helping me to heal. For giving me the chance to find who I am, even when you didn’t trust who I was.” The soft intonations of her accent rolled over the words, wrapping them up and rolling them around until the sentence sung like a melody. 

 

As a steady flush rolled up his face, the ever-eloquent representative of Lucis’s Crown Prince found himself struggling for words. 

 

“W-Well I can hardly take all the credit. Gladio was the first of us to really come around to you, and Prompto has always had a gift for making people feel welcome. Even Noctis--”   
  
She silenced him with a hand on his shoulder, halting his speech as effectively as if she had slapped him across the face. “They all helped, and I’m grateful to all of them.” She said, the light reflecting off her amber eyes seeming to make them glow softly with an emotion he was almost afraid to put a name to.    
  
“But you taught me the stars.”    
  
His eyes widened, recalling vividly the night she was referring to. It had been in the fourth week of her travelling with them - though the others had begun to warm up to the runaway as it became clear that she had suffered under her homeland just as much as they, Ignis still watched every action she took or word she spoke with a heavy dose of suspicion. His job was to manage risk, after all, and allowing the daughter of their greatest enemy to tag along as they searched for the means to destroy him was certainly the largest one they had taken yet. So when he awoke in the early hours of one morning to see her swiftly and silently exiting the communal tent, he felt as though all his cautious distance had finally been validated. Clearly, she was up to something. 

 

But when he followed her, it wasn’t the treacherous Nif snake-in-the-grass he had expected, sitting by the dying light of the fire. Simply a girl, looking smaller and more alone than Ignis had ever seen her, staring up at the sky. He watched in silence for a few minutes, assuming that she hadn’t noticed his presence, until he turned to go back to the tent and leave her to her musings and a voice so quiet and soft that he almost didn’t recognise it had said,    
_  
_ _ “Even the stars are different here,” _

 

Warily, he sat down beside her, and she began to talk. Frankly, he wasn’t sure if she was even talking  _ to  _ him. Just talking. About her home that wasn’t really a home back in Gralea. About how alone she had felt each night  without so much as a stuffed Moogle to hold as the sun died above her. About the terrifying darkness that would creep in at the edges of her bare-walled room, tormenting her and keeping her from sleep. About the way she would lie there with bruises old and new from training that would have had an adult curling in on themselves let alone a child, and would pray to anything that might be listening that she would wake up somewhere else. Anywhere else.    
  
And finally, she told him about the sky. Gralea didn’t have much in the way of natural beauty, but the night sky was something to behold. As a child, those fantastic whorls and eddies of light, the tiny pinpricks of stars on a solid blanket of darkness, were what had given her hope. What had kept her grounded. The constellations she learned to identify had been constant, unchanging; her map of a world that didn’t revolve around pain and loneliness and constant reminders of who she would one day be. 

 

They were an anchor. And now, in a country whose population wanted her dead, running from the only life she had ever known, the Princess of Niflheim was adrift.  

 

And so, instead of apprehending her like he had been prepared to do, Ignis had sat in silence, simply listening to her talk. Eventually, she too stopped speaking to stare back up at the stars with a look of indescribable melancholy. It was then that Ignis pointed up towards a group of the cosmic lights, and began softly, 

 

_ “We call that one the ‘belt of Shiva,’”  _

  
  


When the sun came up the next morning, he realised that perhaps that he didn’t mind the lack of sleep so much if it came with the presence of a grateful smile on her scarred face. Three days later, sitting around the glowing embers of a campfire as the others bickered and joked together, she had tapped him on the shoulder and pointed upwards and said in a voice filled with innocent glee,    
  
_ “Look, Ignis - Ifrit’s Horns!” _

 

Though the princess’s attention had been fixed on the glittering cosmos above, his own was taken up by the sudden awareness of how close their bodies were, and how the way the fire danced across her upturned features made it look like she was bathing in a light that shone from deep within her. 

 

Upon reflection, Ignis realised that he could place that very night as the moment when his feelings towards this flame-haired tornado of a girl had changed. It was no longer the bite of suspicion that stuck in his mind when he saw her, nor even the steadfast feelings of friendship and camaraderie he felt towards his companions. This was something new entirely, something that left him with both a hollow ache in his chest and a feeling of fullness that was almost maddening, something that chilled him in his bones and yet burned at his very core every time she looked at him, or smiled, or sang one of her folksongs that he couldn’t understand but that bewitched him all the same. It was utterly incomprehensible to him, but he found that he didn’t want it to stop. 

 

He knew now what an impact that night had had on him, but for some reason, it was a shock to hear that she too remembered it so strongly. 

 

He stared at her for a moment, finding himself unsure how to respond. “I… I didn’t realise that it meant so much to you, my dear.”

 

The term of endearment slipped out before he could stop it, eyes widening a fraction and heat rushing to his cheeks, blessedly hidden in the darkness. If Aurelia noticed, she showed no sign of it, instead giving him that grateful smile that could have powered all of Lestallum with it’s luminance. “Of course it did, Ignis. You didn’t trust me - didn’t like me, even. But still, you listened to me talk about how lost I felt, and you showed me how to feel less lost. You showed me kindness.” Somehow, he had failed to notice the fact that she had moved towards him until she took his hand in her own, meeting his eyes. “You were kind to me, Ignis. Even when you had no reason to be. That kindness meant everything to me.”

 

Was this a dream? Had the martini really gone to his head that quickly? He stared at her blankly, torn between being hopeful that this touch could be an indicator of returned affections, and terrified that if he had read her signals wrong and acted, there would be hell to pay. Coughing awkwardly, he finally managed to reply, “Well, I’m glad that it helped you. If I may say so, you mean a great deal to me. I’m very grateful that we’re friends.” 

  
Something in his response seemed to trigger an immediate change in her quiet demeanour eyes narrowing in irritation and snatching her hand from his as she turned away, muttering to herself in frustration. 

 

_ “Vittu!”  _ She growled, beginning to pace back and forth within the limited space. _ “Sokea, tyhmä poika! Kuinka vaikeaa on nähdä, mitä yritän kertoa sinulle?” _

 

Gralean had never been his strong point when it came to languages, but Ignis was knowledgeable enough to know that she had called him some rather colorful words that essentially added up to mean ‘idiotic and blind’. Everything else was, unfortunately, a mystery. Unsure what exactly he had done to merit such an outburst, Ignis was of half a mind to leave now so as not to cause further distress. But something in him couldn’t abide by that - if nothing else, they were still friends, and he would never have left his friends to deal with their problems on their own unless they asked him to do so. Cautiously, he reached out to put a gloved hand on her shoulder.    
“Aurelia, are you alright--”   
  
Whipping around on her heel, she turned to face him with a fire in her golden eyes that had him frozen to the spot. Momentarily,  the world went silent as they stared at each other, barely even registering their own breathing. 

 

Then, he was being yanked forwards by his shirt, and her lips were crashing against his. 

 

For a moment, he forgot how to breathe. It almost hurt, how wildly his heart beat at his chest, pounding like a coeurl battling against a cage of flesh and bone. Hot and sweet and angry, her kiss was like a wildfire that threatened to engulf any part of him it could reach. And Six, how he wanted to burn. Not wasting another second on contemplation, he allowed his hands to fly upwards and entangle their fingers in her hair, holding her to him tightly, desperately.    
  
Aurelia Aldercapt, he decided, kissed like she fought. Unrelenting and all consuming, she wielded her lips like a weapon, with a fierceness and determination that was nearly frightening. But behind the sheer strength of the assault was a sharp analysis of every movement of her mouth against his, and Ignis had the inexplicable sense that she was somehow cataloguing his every reaction. Tentatively, he allowed his tongue to run over the line of her lower lip, and had to stifle a groan when she immediately gave him access, allowing him to taste the bite of the alcohol that coated the inside of her mouth. The thought that this was truly happening, that she shared his longing, was truthfully more intoxicating than any drink he could think of.

 

Eventually the risk of suffocation won out over the desire to remain entwined, and he pulled away in a flurry of rapid gasps. Head foggy from the unexpected (though not unwelcome) turn of events he found himself staring mutely at the girl in front of him, marvelling at how she looked while recovering from their sudden fusion of lips. 

“I…” His voice was little more than a soft croak when he finally found it in himself to speak. “Can I assume- that is to say, do you- does this indicate that you, um, return my feelings?” For the first time in what was perhaps his entire life, it seemed that the advisor was lost for words. 

 

Smudged red lips twisting upwards in a sardonic smile, Aurelia placed her hand on her hip as she looked up at him. “Well, I don’t know how you do it in Lucis, but in Niflheim we generally do not kiss someone who we are not interested in.” 

 

Her bluntness, though part of what had enamoured him with her in the first place, often left Ignis feeling somewhat slow on the uptake in comparison - this was no exception. The steady flush on his cheeks had yet to disappear as he replied rather lamely, “Right- Yes, of course. That, um, that makes sense…”  Staring at the kiss-swollen curve of her cupid’s bow and the gold rimmed pools of black that were her eyes, he felt some of his former boldness returning to him in the urge to repeat their previous actions. Still, it didn’t stop him from asking softly,    
  
“In that case, would you- would it be okay if I kissed you again?”   
  
The sound of her laugh had his own heart soaring, heightened further as she moved to brush away a stray piece of hair that had fallen in his face with a deep tenderness which almost made his knees buckle. Traces of humour still remained in her voice, but his resolve crumbled when she answered softly, “Yes, Ignis. In fact, I’d like that very much,”

 

Joining their lips was different this time around, like comparing a blazing inferno to the embers of a campfire. But it was fire nonetheless, and burned just as intensely. Tentative hands fell from the crown of her head to the small of her waist, feeling the exposed skin boiling hot beneath his fingers, and pulled her ever closer. Mind foggy, he didn’t even realise that he had pressed her against the wall until he felt the graze of brick on the knuckles that held her to him - he was too occupied with losing himself in her touch, failing to stop the shivers that rushed up his spine at the brush of her calloused fingertips on the nape of his neck. It was like finding the last piece of a puzzle, the way their mouths slated against each other just so, filling him with a sense that he was exactly where he was meant to be at that moment. 

 

He wasn’t sure if that sense intensified or fled when her hand moved to his, guiding it towards the swell of her chest and leaving it there. The slow build of arousal that had been flooding his veins seized up and left his head spinning with the sudden onslaught of desire. Breaking away with a gasp, he still couldn’t bring himself to move his hand.

“Aurelia, please,” He breathed, gazing imploringly at her, “think this through - don’t rush into something you’ll regret,”    
  
Underneath his words was a silent plea.    
__  
_ Please don’t start this if you don’t intend to finish it. Don’t get my hopes up and then leave me alone. _ __  
_  
_ __ Please don’t regret me.

 

The hand that had been hiding in his hair moved to touch his cheek, tracing the fine line of bone down to his jaw. Her voice was soft, soothing even, but the certainty in her words made his heart ache.    
  
“I’m tired of thinking, Ignis.” She said, “Thinking is all I’ve done since I realised how much you mean to me. I’m tired of being the empire’s weapon, of pretending I don’t want things - that I don’t feel things. I’ve lived for twenty one years like that - I don’t want to die like that, too.” 

  
His hand against her hip moved in circles across her skin, unable to tear himself from the scorching fire of her eyes. He had seen her wearing less, yet this seemed the most bare she had ever been. “Here?” He rasped softly. “Now?”

 

A twinkle of humor sparked in her eye, the slight smirk he adored hinting against the line of her mouth.

 

“There are worse places, I suppose,” She laughed, “But I believe it would go against something in that moral code of yours to have my first time with someone be up against the wall of a Lestallum nightclub.” 

 

It was then that the reality of the situation began to sink in. This would be her first time. Of course it would be. Where else would she have had the chance? She had barely even been a person beneath the Empire’s grasp - there was no way they would have allowed her to experience something so human as this. To think that she wanted her first time to be with him was both deeply flattering and rather anxiety-inducing. 

 

She was right, of course; if he’d had the time, such an event would have been planned down to the last detail, ensuring that everything from the location to the food beforehand was perfectly chosen to reflect the gravity with which he held the situation and the affection he held her in. He remembered clearly how beautiful the expression of overwhelmed gratitude had looked on her face the first time he made a meal with her in mind - and that was just using camping equipment. What he would have given to see her face if he had the luxury of a full kitchen to create something for her. Life had been so cruel to her, and he wanted nothing more than to take every chance he could to show her she was more than the monster her father intended her to be. 

 

But for all his grandiose ideas about how he would like to fulfil her desires if given the time and opportunity, the fact remained that a room in the Leville was probably the best they were going to get. 

 

Though his hands fumbled on the keys, the true apprehension came when watching her shrug off her jacket and sit down at the edge of his bed like it was the most natural thing in the world. 

 

His throat suddenly felt dry as he looked down at her, noting the curve of her chest, now further emphasised by the angle at which they were positioned. Despite the rising need fighting upwards in his being, the fear that he might overwhelm her if he allowed the depth of his desire become apparent was still present, and he found himself saying,    
  
“Please remember, we can stop at any time if you--”    
  
“For Six’s sake!” she cut him off, “just take me, Ignis!”

 

Something about her assertiveness broke the invisible wall between them, and he surged forward without a second thought, kissing her with a ferocity that surprised even him. If she was shocked, however, she didn’t show it. Instead she responded in kind, latching onto the back of his head with her hands. Tilting herself backwards, she allowed her back to hit the bed until he was on all fours above her, panting slightly but holding nothing but admiration in her eyes. 

 

Surrounding her on all sides, he felt a sudden need to protect this moment - protect this woman - for as long as he possibly could. For someone who’s loyalty had only ever belonged to one purpose, it was both frightening and somehow freeing. Spurred on by that realisation and the feeling of her hand against his cheek, Ignis felt himself releasing a breath he didn’t realise he had been holding, and with it all his inhibitions.    
  
They could be dead by sunrise two days from now, and if this was to be the only chance he would have to reach into the guarded prison of the princess’s chest and hold her heart to his until it learned to beat again? 

 

Then by the Six, he was going to make it count.


End file.
